A travel RN paid an hourly wage plus housing and meal stipends

We start from each agency’s Form W-2, its year-end wage statement. Box 1 is taxable wages; box 12 code L is the part of a per diem allowance (a fixed daily travel payment) up to the federal rate (the federal government’s per diem rate), which isn’t taxable; any excess over that rate is in box 1 as wages. The pay stubs list the hourly pay and each stipend (a housing or meal payment from the agency on top of the hourly wage), and the contract gives its dates and location. If the return is built from box 1 alone, a stipend whose W-2 treatment doesn’t fit the facts goes unnoticed. We read box 1 and box 12 against each stub’s hourly pay and stipends and against the facts behind the nurse’s tax home (the place the IRS treats as home for travel: generally where the nurse regularly works). Anything that doesn’t fit, we raise with the nurse; we don’t contact the agency. Individual returns from $350: see how we prepare your federal and state returns.

A traveler with no home base between contracts

The W-2s and pay stubs showing the housing and meal stipends come first, along with each contract’s dates and location and the last lease or mortgage statement for the home given up. If the stipends are still treated as tax-free after the home is gone, wages can be left off the return. An accountable plan is an agency’s arrangement that pays travel costs the traveler accounts for, with any excess returned; one that doesn’t meet those rules is a nonaccountable plan. With no tax home there’s no travel away from home, so stipends for those costs are wages under the accountable-plan rules. We test the home the traveler gave up against the tax-home rules, and we raise any stipend whose W-2 treatment doesn’t fit the facts.

A respiratory therapist whose contract keeps getting extended

The original contract and each extension, with dates, come first, along with the pay stubs and the W-2. If nobody tracks when the expected length changed, stipends paid after that point can still be treated as tax-free. A contract in one place that is realistically expected to last more than 1 year is indefinite, whether that expectation exists at the start or arrives with an extension — and that place then becomes the tax home, where payments for living costs are income even when they’re called travel allowances. We check each extension against the length expected when the work started, including repeat contracts at the same place.

A nurse who takes a contract in the home area

The documents here are the contract with the facility’s address, the pay stubs and the W-2. If this contract’s stipend is handled like the ones paid on contracts away from home, the return reports too little in wages. On a contract in the tax-home area the nurse isn’t away from home, so that contract’s stipend is wages under the accountable-plan rules. We compare each contract’s location with that area and with how the W-2 reported that contract’s stipend, and raise any mismatch with the nurse before the return is built.

A travel tech with contracts in three states and W-2s from two agencies

We read each W-2’s state wage and withholding boxes, the contract dates and locations, and any state return filed last year. If a W-2’s state boxes don’t match where the days were actually worked, a state return reports the wrong pay. Oregon, for example, requires a return to claim a refund of Oregon tax withheld, even when no return would otherwise be required. We compare each W-2’s state wages and withholding with the days worked in each state, and prepare a return in each state that needs one.

A nurse picking up per diem shifts or a contract as a 1099 contractor

Per diem shifts are shift-by-shift work — pay, never a tax-free allowance. We start from the Forms 1099-NEC (each a client’s report of contractor pay) from the facilities or clients, the invoices or shift records, and a dated log of travel costs with lodging receipts. Nothing is withheld from that pay, so estimated tax — payments made during the year on income with nothing withheld — may be due. The 1099 pay goes on Schedule C, where self-employed income and expenses go, with the costs of travel away from the tax home on a temporary contract (getting there, lodging at actual cost, part of the meal cost) and license fees for the trade. Once net earnings reach $400, self-employment tax (Social Security and Medicare for the self-employed) applies on top of income tax. We keep the 1099 side’s records apart from the W-2 side, set up Schedule C, and figure the self-employment tax and the estimated payment due January 15, 2027. Self-employed returns from $650, one business on the same return — more on 1099 and per diem shift work.

Your tax home, in writing

What the facts say about your tax home and which records back it, with each contract’s expected length checked as of when the work started and each location checked against the home area.

The states, and each W-2

Which states you file in and why, how each W-2 reported the stipends and the state wages, and whether that fits the facts — the actual numbers, in order, with the reasoning written next to them.

The money, projected

The projected balance due or refund, federal and in each state, set against what each agency withheld, plus any estimated payment or withholding change that would close a gap.

The returns, or the figures

The year’s returns — federal, the home state’s and each work state’s that needs one — or the figures handed to your own preparer. If planning isn’t worth paying for, we tell you and you’re done.

A California home, contracts elsewhere

If California is your domicile — your one permanent home, the place you intend to return to — and you leave for temporary contracts planning to come back, you may still be a California resident, taxed on all your income, including pay for contracts worked in other states. Working as a traveler doesn’t settle it either way: the FTB says residency can’t rest on occupation alone and weighs the strength of your ties, not their number — your main home, driver’s license, car registration, voter registration, the state where you keep your professional licenses, and the like. We line up those ties with the records that show them and say what the facts support. A permanent move is a different job: a permanent move into or out of California.

The other-state credit, on Schedule S

If you’re a California resident, the credit for tax paid to another state on wages earned there generally goes on your California return (Schedule S is California’s other-state credit form), unless that state gives California residents the credit itself, in which case it’s claimed on that state’s nonresident return. We figure which return carries it and prepare both returns from the same numbers.

A California contract when home is elsewhere

If your domicile is in another state and you’re in California only for a short contract, California taxes the pay for work done here, on Form 540NR (California’s nonresident or part-year resident return), with the rate figured on your whole year’s income. More than nine months in California in a year creates a presumption that you’re a resident, which can be overcome — and fewer than nine months doesn’t by itself make anyone a nonresident. We count your California workdays from the contract calendar and compare the W-2’s California wages and withholding with that count.

FTB letters

If the FTB questions residency in a contract year, its auditors build a calendar of where you were from bank, card and travel records. We keep those records organized with the return, and we handle FTB letters as well as IRS letters: how we handle IRS and FTB letters.

Planning review

$0 first review

Planning after it only if it’s worth paying for.

Individual return

from $350

Federal and state returns e-filed together.

With 1099 work

from $650

Agency W-2 pay plus one 1099 business.

The same-day rule

Call or email during business hours and you’ll hear back the same day — all twelve months.

Travelers are welcome

One agency or four, one state or several, W-2 only or 1099 on the side — the free call ends with a straight answer on whether we’re the right fit.

Admitted to practice before the IRS

Our team of IRS representation specialists is admitted to practice before the IRS. If an IRS letter shows up — one saying a stipend should have been reported as wages, for example — forward it to the team that prepared the return.